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Gooney Bird and the Rooeon’s second grade students were hard at work on their Pilgrim mural, which had been laid out on the floor All of the desks had been pushed to one side to raders were on their hands and knees, working with crayons

Gooney Bird Greene was right in the ht s," Gooney Bird always said

The children’s shoes were lined up in the coatrooested that it would be wise to take thee of the mural, their shoes would leave marks

"We always take our shoes off at home," Keiko had said as she untied her sneakers, "because my family came from Japan, and in Japan people never ever wear shoes in the house"

One by one the children had reest because she earing hiking boots that laced halfway up to her knees When, finally, her boots were unlaced and re one red sock and one yellow one

"Gooney Bird’s socks don’t

"Of course they don’t," Gooney Bird said "I hardly ever wearsocks"

"Doesn’t your mother roll your socks neatly into balls when she takes them out of the dryer? Doesn’t she match them up very carefully?" Beanie asked

Gooney Bird thought about that She looked down at her own feet and wiggled her toes, one set of toes in a red sock, one in a yellow "No," she said "My mother puts all of my clean socks in a basket on the floor of my closet And every day I choose two So, but most days I don’t

"Most often," she went on, "wearingof ennui"

"Oh, eon She went to the board and wrote ENNUI in big letters "Class? You knohat to do"

All of the second-graders took their dictionaries out of their desks

At the beginning of the school year, the classrooeon’s desk, next to her coffee

But Gooney Bird Greene, the new student, had arrived in October Gooney Bird had very strong opinions about things She had brought her own very large dictionary from home On her first day in the classroorader should have a very large dictionary

Mrs Pidgeon, as not accustomed to Gooney Bird yet, smiled "We’ve always just used this one," she said, picking up the dictionary frohtly dusty "The school provided it And it’s pretty old But the school budget doesn’t allow for bigger or better dictionaries"

"If so dictionaries, one for each child, would you use thehed "Yes," she said "Of course I would"

"Give me one week," Gooney Bird said

Exactly one week later, a very heavy box containing twenty-two very heavy dictionaries was delivered to Mrs Pidgeon’s classrooht the box in on a wheeled dolly

"How on earth did you accoeon asked as she unpacked the dictionaries and passed one to each student

"I planned my work," Gooney Bird said, "and then I worked my plan"

"What was your plan?" Barry Tuckerman asked as he examined his thick new dictionary

"First I put on the right outfit"

Everyone giggled They had known Gooney Bird Greene for only a short time, but each day she had worn a different outfit, and so

"What did you wear?" asked Keiko "Pajamas and cowboy boots?" That hat Gooney Bird had worn on her first day at school

"Of course not This was for a businesslike visit I wore loves, my silver wet-look ski pants, a T-shirt with a picture of Albert Einstein on it, and my straw hat with a small artificial flower I think the flower is a ca your businesslike outfit?" Mrs Pidgeon asked She handed a dictionary to Tricia and reached for another

"I went to the public library We only just moved to the town of Watertower, as you know But my parents have always told me that the public library is one of the first places you must visit in a nen So I did that"

"Wearing your hat with the caeon asked

"Yes, of course I introduced myself to the head librarian, the assistant librarian, the children’s librarian, the reference librarian, and the janitor"

"Just the way you introduced yourself to us on the first day? I remember you said--"

All of the children reether "My naht sht s"

"Well, ould I say that to the librarians? I didn’t want a desk in the library I wanted dictionaries"

Mrs Pidgeon was laughing "And so you said--"

"I said, ’I’m Gooney Bird Greene and I’m new in town and I would like to knohat you do with your old dictionaries, because rade class needs twenty-two of them’"

The children all applauded "And so they sent us the dictionaries!" Mrs Pidgeon said in delight

"Nope"

"Oh Well, what happened?"

"They said that the old dictionaries were in the base dust, but they didn’t have twenty-two, and also the old dictionaries were obsolete--we can look that word up after we get them all unpacked--and anye needed were nice new dictionaries"

"These do look brand new," Mrs Pidgeon said, exa one

Gooney Bird continued "Then, suddenly"

The class grinned They loved it when Gooney Bird said "suddenly" They waited eagerly to hear what came next